Live In A Gray Scale World

Posted on January 24th, 2012

In 1977, Steve Wozniak (the sole inventor of the Apple I and II personal computers) revolutionized the computer industry. In his autobiography, iWoz, he advises us to live in a gray scale world – “knowing what it is to have a hunch or a vision about what can be, even though it doesn’t exist yet.”
 
“The only way to come up with something new – something world-changing – is to think outside the constraints everyone else has. You have to think outside the artificial limits everyone else has already set. You have to live in a gray-scale world, not the black-and-white one, if you’re going to come up with something no one else has thought of before.” (p. 290)
 
To us, the same thing can be said about leadership. In fact, his advice sounds a lot like our Higher Level of Leadership theme – staying focused despite the uncertainty, without creating certainty.
 
Managers, we believe, live (or at least prefer to live) in a black-and-white world. Leaders live in (and accept) a gray-scale world.
 
Where do you prefer to live (and work)?